September 2009

Banks just do not get it. They may sit on all the big corporate media boards and fill political coffers in turn to pull the strings of our Senators, but they cannot control social media sites. Their failure to do [...]

Are you being screwed by Chase? Are you being used and abused during the loan modification or short sale process and want to know your rights? Welcome to the club of unhappy homeowners, abused Chase clients and never ending stories [...]

It’s not quite “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  But it’s along those lines.  Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage giant, plans to send people out to knock on the doors of borrowers who might qualify for [...]

The ratio of first mortgages 90-days late in Orange County rose for the seventh straight month in July, hitting 6.7% of all loans outstanding. That’s the highest percentage since at least January 2007, when it was a mere 0.7%, and [...]

NCLC Looks at 25 Programs in 14 States: CA, CT, FL, IN, KY, ME, MI, NV, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR and PA; Mediation Programs Seen as Faltering For Same Reasons as Struggling Federal Voluntary Foreclosure Modification Efforts. WASHINGTON, D.C.///September [...]

HEMET, Calif. (KABC) — A Hemet neighborhood with a history of financial woes was in even more trouble Monday night. Almost every apartment unit on the 500 block of Mobley Lane has gone into foreclosure. And residents say they’re being [...]

At first glance, banks’ practices seem reasonable enough: Overdraw your account, and the bank will cover the transaction — for a fee. The problem is, most banks don’t ask consumers if they want their transactions automatically paid. In recent years, [...]

But filing fake documents to establish the right to take possession of someone’s home? That’s not something a lawyer should do. So what if that were suddenly happening in cases all over the nation? What if some law firms that [...]

Too far underwater to refinance her loan, Ms. Parry says she began seeking a loan modification from Citigroup Inc. in June 2008 and ran into continual delays. So far, she says, she has submitted financial information and documentation for her [...]

To confuse consumers even more, not all lenders follow the guidelines. That may change on November 1, when lenders can use a new code to report them as a “loan modification under government program.” The code will clarify which borrowers [...]

Consumers: Bailout aided lenders, not us James Seeley and Hilary Egan live in different towns, but have lots in common: Both face financial woes, both applied for mortgage modifications and both got turned down. And, like lots of Americans these [...]

The system also led to confusion. When MERS was involved, borrowers who hoped to work out their loans couldn’t identify who they should turn to. As cases filed by MERS grew, lawyers representing troubled borrowers began questioning how an electronic [...]

The state group that disciplines lawyers is debating how to deal with reports of attorneys using errors and false statements to retake property in foreclosure cases. Some of the most egregious Florida examples come from Sarasota County, where a study [...]

“Bank of America takes recent allegations made against Acorn and Acorn Housing Corporation employees very seriously,” the bank said in a statement. Earlier this month, the U.S. Census Bureau dropped Acorn as a partner for the 2010 Census, and the [...]

Locally, a Pico Rivera business specializing in home modification loans drew the attention of sheriff’s fraud detectives when several clients showed up Sept.17 demanding answers. The next day, deputies raided Your Dreams Come True Inc. on Slauson Avenue and later [...]

Sure, the plunging price reflects a weak housing market. But it also reflects another trend: the evicted former owners had stripped the home of all valuables inside — including its appliances and its plumbing — leaving only a skeleton of [...]

Angry callers are making death threats against Bank of America employees in Gaffney, according to relatives of the workers. Two women — who said they were the mother and sister of an employee — made the claims after a protest [...]

Protesting near the National Constitution Center, where a congressional panel yesterday tried to gauge the progress of homeowner-rescue programs, Aponte said his lender had agreed to modify his mortgage, then had withdrawn the offer. “They said that without a job, [...]

The community groups said disparate banking practices and inefficiencies have led to delays in approvals, clogged the pipeline, curtailed the success of loan mod programs. Eileen Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of NeighborWorks America, said it can take as long as [...]

Four states have sued 21st Century, and at least three more have open investigations. Over 150 consumers from more than 30 states have filed complaints against 21st Century with the Better Business Bureau. No active firm has more complaints. Yet [...]

Like all of us, I was sorry to learn that Lies of Our Times could not be sustained. It’s a real loss, and another signal that we have our work cut out for us in times that are in many [...]

SYLLABUS BY THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT 1. A party is not contingently necessary in a mortgage-foreclosure lawsuit when that party is called the mortgagee in a mortgage but is not the lender, has no right to the repayment of the [...]

Less than a week after a Bank of America employee in Gaffney removed American flags that lined a procession to honor a fallen Marine, the Cherokee County Council has decided to close their accounts with the company. The flag flap, [...]

More than a year into the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression, millions of Americans have seen their home values and retirement savings plunge and their jobs evaporate. What they haven’t seen are any Wall Street tycoons forced to [...]

Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, two of the nation’s biggest banks, announced plans on Tuesday to drastically overhaul their debit card programs by lowering or eliminating fees, changing the way they credit transactions and allowing customers to opt out [...]

Debra and Arthur Scriven were served notice in June 2008 that their mortgage lender, a unit of Citigroup Inc., was preparing to foreclose on their home. Fifteen months later, the Scrivens are still in their home near Columbia, S.C., and [...]